With a long list of sell-out headline shows to his credit, Sydney based Australian hip-hop music artist Rates has also appeared on stages in several festivals and tours across Australia, including Big Day Out, Breath of Life Festival, Heatwave, Tech N9ne, Task Force, and many more.
Rates also has two #1 Australian hip-hop albums under his belt, including Destroy and Rebuild (2013) and Untold (2016) and his tracks Nightmare and Nightmare 2 have attracted over 4 million YouTube views collectively. The new single Clouded will undoubtedly build on his growing reputation in the contemporary Australian hip-hop, rap community.
The new track, produced by Defiant (HZN beats) and engineered by Espa at Safe House Studios, features the disarming vocal of new talent, Aliya Dusk. Noted for his close to the bone narratives and unassuming style, Rates’ assured musical forays and robust performances have attracted a decent number of followers. Clouded is very much a sparse hip-hop, rap record, blending periodic drops with ethereal textures and a contained melancholic energy that suitably mirrors the lyric.
The track is not so much about startling dynamics but adopting a restrained yet consistent approach, allowing for Aliya’s melodic centrepiece and Rates’ bare-knuckled confessional to do their work. As well as containing the perhaps obligatory, expected melodic chorus pay-off that makes the most of Aliya Dusk’s gossamer-like cadences, Clouded features Rates’ typically vigorous observations and wordplay.
The track’s ultimate potency lies not only in the juxtaposition of Rates’ verses and the anchoring hook but perhaps most persuasively in the explicatory manner by which his imaginings are conveyed.
With lines like, Yeah I guess I got my head in the clouds / and it’s strange there’s a deafening sound / I remember my dreams, and then forget what they’re about, Rates transposes his stark self-assessment into a fittingly quixotical and picturesque image, neatly and effectively cushioned by the encapsulating qualities of Aliya’s performance.
